Finished Fr 5/25/18
(published- 1971)
This was one of my ancient paperbacks (apparently never read) that I found on the shelf when I was looking for something 'entirely different'. And, it was.... the worst book I've read in ages!
Harry Bronson is a young engineer, and he's starting to remember things about his younger life that lead him to believe that he has repressed psychic abilities. His parents were part of an underground ESP society. They were part of a professional lounge act, and he finds that this is not all there is to their story.He has been raised in private schools and the purse-strings have been held by an uncle/ friend of the family, Charles Grimes. Harry is working on developing a new car engine in Europe with a co-investor. Grimes cuts him off for delving into his past. Ellen Palermo was a cousin of Harry's and he tries to locate this woman using his newly found powers. Harry is a member of a private club devoted to discussing scientific matters, 'The Primates'. His father is not dead, and is one of the scientists in this group.
The premise of this sub-standard SciFi novel is that there is a dire downside to the possession of extrasensory abilities. Psychics are prone to insanity and suicide, and there seems to be an evil, outside entity behind the madness, and it's up to Harry Bronson to find the truth.
That's the framework of the plot, and with a decent writer, something could most definitely be crafted. Yet this book is just one dense, joyless paragraph after another. There is a scene between Ellen and Harry that skirt the issue of childhood sexually that couldn't be handled more clumsily. For an idea with potential for maximum shock value, the entire incident just remains inert and only slightly confusing.
This could have been something terrific- an examination of precognition vs. free will and much more, yet the wonderful ideas are smothered under a blanket of grim and humorless prose.
I couldn't have been more dissatisfied.
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